【Topic】Labour Markets and the Energy Transition

【Lecture】Dr. of Pro. Mr. Harminder

【Chair】Dr. of Xiaodong Lai

【Time】July.01, 2026 10:00am

【Place】Room 536 in Wen II building

【Abstract】

“The energy transition” represents a shift away from fossil-fuel energy (coal, oil, and natural gas) toward alternative energy (wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear).

This could be driven by explicit policy decisions favouring alternative energy or technological advances giving it a cost advantage, or a mix of the two. The green transition is evident to varying degree across a range of countries:

UK. Decline in traditional oil and gas-based sector around Northeast Scotland.China. Decline in traditional mining and broader state-owned enterprises sector in north ChinaUS. Concerns in West Virginia (coal), Wyoming (coal), Texas (oil and gas) and Louisiana (offshore energy and petrochemicals). Fossil fuel sector heavily concentrated but green jobs are more dispersed. the key point is that the transition is likely to reduce jobs in some industries/occupations and create new jobs elsewhere.  “Fossil” or “Brown” jobs → Often tied to polluting industries (around oil and gas),“Green jobs”→ No standard definition.A variety of factors may slow, limit, and/or impose costs to labour-market mobility. It has job-search frictions: The idea is that firms looking to hire and workers who want a job don’t instantly and costlessly find each other: it takes some time and effort to find a match. With search frictions we have both unemployed workers and unfilled job vacancies .Wage can determine the level of employment adjustments in response to a shock. For example, if wages were relatively flexible, negative sectoral shocks would result in lower wages for those firms and a smaller change in employment than if wages were inflexible.

【Lecture】

Dr Harminder Battu is a labour economist at the University of Aberdeen in the UK, Dean of International Affairs at the University of Aberdeen. He has extensive experience in teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has taught for many years in business economics. His research interests are in the areas of labour and spatial economics where he as published extensively in international journals including the Economic Journal, the Journal of Population Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.  Recent research examines the impact of housing markets on unemployment, the economics of culture and identity and how these impact on employment, skills utilisation in the workplace and also technology and social well-being and worker mobility. He is a member of the Scottish Government Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population.